Democratic Governor Alters GOP-Passed Bill and Increases Education Funding For Next 400 Years

AP Photo/Harm Venhuizen

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers used his broad veto powers to alter a budget passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature on Wednesday. Instead of mandating an increase in education spending for the 2024-2025 school year, Evers edited the budget to stipulate that funding increases will happen annually for the next 400 years.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Evers used his line-item veto to engineer a $325 increase in funding for each student every year until 2425. He used his veto to strike a hyphen and “20” from “2024-25” so that it read “2425” before he signed the budget into law.

The Sentinel reported the veto was one of more than four dozen provisions nixed or altered, including a $3.5 billion tax cut for the wealthiest Wisconsinites. It further stated:

Evers said last year he would not sign a budget that included tax relief for wealthy residents and GOP lawmakers crafted the budget in a way that would allow him to veto the changes to the top bracket to ensure the entire the budget would not be scrapped, according to Rep. Evan Goyke, the ranking Democratic member of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans, who handily control both the state assembly and senate thanks to partisan gerrymandering, criticized the move. The assembly majority leader claimed Evers “broke a deal.”

Much of Evers’ initial budget proposal was rejected by Republican lawmakers, who axed plans for paid family leave, Medicaid expansion, mental health programs in schools, marijuana legalization, and other provisions.

The governor won reelection last year after his opponent pledged, “Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I’m elected governor.”